The Nobleman's Shadow

Step by step, slowly approached that thing that was not comparable to the creation seen. Glen, Faust and Bruno, being defeated, left Aren alone, who behind him had the three young women collapsed.

The man had realized something from the beginning, why was that creature so interested in trapping the women? There was no longer time or reason to know the answer.

"Shit... I can't move... I feel like I've broken some ribs." thought Glen hurt as he watched the monster approaching Aren.

It was then that, seeing the action of that long-haired young man, Glen was shocked.

Aren showed no fear, but a look of seriousness was reflected on his face. The young man standing firmly in the middle of the rain looked thoughtful.

"Aren ... What are you planning ..."

Glen was trying to answer in the face of his friend's reckless act; in a matter of milliseconds, the young man came to understand something.

"Since we met, he seems to be someone with good perception as if he had a sixth sense, but ... it was just that, he's just a normal person."

Aren had certainly shown himself to be someone who could be sensitive to dangers, but he hadn't shown anything special or have outstanding abilities unlike the other two guards. This conclusion made Glen saddened, for he no longer had the strength to move.

 On the other hand, lying on the other side equally on the ground, it seemed that Faust's body moved a little; it was as if he was trembling.

"I guess ... I'm just left to use it ... ... I really wouldn't want to, but there's no choice." planned Aren.

The slow walking creature had raised one of its limbs which began to transform. Its claws twisted and combined making it resemble the tip of a spear.

Meanwhile, raising his left hand slightly behind his back, a black colored aura with traces of a faint white light began to appear and surround Aren's entire hand.

As if it had noticed this, the creature began to run immediately with the objective of attacking the young man before he did anything. Glen who was watching from afar could notice the strange behavior of the creature, the way it attacked this time did not seem as if it was playing or hesitating, but it really showed a desire to kill Aren quickly.

It was as if it was showing a seriousness that had not been seen before from the monster.

"How much time will I have? I only require two -..." thought Aren who suddenly felt like a strong dizziness and headache.

"W-what's... happening?"

- Aren, what are you doing! Watch out!

The young man who heard the warning as he fixed his gaze forward noticed that his reaction was too late.

Within seconds, as he coughed, some blood fell to the ground. When he saw the result of the attack he saw that he had been pierced by the limb of the monster.

- Aren! - Glen exclaimed.

Slowly the creature extracted its spear-like limb from Aren's abdomen. The young man backed up a few steps trying to cover the wound with one of his hands.

Without waiting, the entity transformed its limb into a large double-bladed axe. The intention was obvious; however, at the moment of striking the blow, a scream made the creature stop and retreat.

- Vortéas!

Suddenly, something began to glow on the monster's body; the weapon that was still embedded near the unhealed wound in the abdomen expelled a wave of air that propelled itself forward, taking the creature with it.

From the entity's back suddenly came out tentacle-like tentacles that tried to stick to the ground, but it wasn't strong enough and the monster was thrown backwards falling near a light pole by the side of the road.

Looking at who it had been, Glen listened as Faust lay bloodied on the ground having given his last effort.

- Well ... we've only bought some time ...

A loud footstep was heard followed by the sound of a piece of metal falling to the track.

Faust's dagger had fulfilled its function which suddenly began to smoke out a reddish smoke that left the elegant design and reduced it to a market dagger.

This time the monster did not walk towards Aren, but with great momentum leapt towards him to attack him with that double axe formed.

- I guess... this is it...

At the moment of delivering the final blow, Aren looked at the ground resigned to his fate; soon he saw the shadow of the creature standing in front of him, but something strange was happening.

The monster did not attack.

It was then that Aren saw something familiar, that black metal rod that Lisbeth had seen before her fainting had pierced again near the creature's previous wound embedding itself in the track.

Glen was the only one who perceived that attack and the real figure of that object. It was a large and long black metal cross, as if it were a spear which had pierced the entity.

- Where... did that come from?

The illumination of the lamp post showed the shadows of Aren and the creature, but it was from Aren's shadow that a hand reached out to grab that metal cross.

When he took it, a golden aura embraced the whole weapon; at that moment, the creature tried to escape; however, as it was difficult for him, since the shape of the cross prevented him from letting go, he tried to break the weapon, but it did not work.

Unexpectedly, the entity seemed desperate to remain in that place, so it took its axe-shaped limb and cut a part of its abdomen that joined with the weapon, leaving it free.

Having moved back a few meters, he was able to check his wound observing that it did not heal as the previous one. Yes, such wounds had been caused by the same weapon.

But what seemed to worry him most was not the wound, but that weapon and the hand that held it.

Slowly from Aren's shadow a female figure began to emerge; a woman with straight blonde hair, white clothes and golden embroidery. Her figure was slender and behind her back were four beautiful white wings as if they were those of doves.

The gaze of the strange woman expressed passivity and tenderness as if she were someone who would never kill a fly. In her hair, she had a kind of tiara and her whole figure was resplendent; her whole presence was a total contrast to Aren's gallant figure.

Having fully emerged, this woman, stepping on the ground, firmly grasped the black cross as if it were her own weapon imposing fear on her adversaries.

- An ... angel?

Both Glen and Aren did not know the identity of that beautiful and elegant woman.

That young woman who seemed to be about 20 years old looked sideways at Aren who was behind her, but, at that moment, the entity took the opportunity to strike a blow with that axe.

The woman, without looking away from Aren, stopped the impact of the creature's limb using that cross; seeing that she could not damage it, the monster retreated again.

- You... Who are you? - Aren asked.

The young woman with a cold expression smiled slightly and gracefully, but did not answer.

Turning her gaze to the monster, her serene gaze made clear her superiority and the potential outcome of that battle now that she was present.

As it seemed that the creature still intended to continue fighting, the white woman rocked her weapon and looked at it with a slight smile as if to make it clear that next time she would attack.

The creature instinctively backed away, but still did not flinch.

Suddenly, there were the alarm sounds of an ambulance nearby and several cars arriving in the distance.

The team contacted first by the deceased Ernesto and then by Fausto were arriving on the scene.

The creature upon realizing this did not hesitate, but escaped from the scene and headed in the direction of the abandoned town.

Glen, upon seeing this, was relieved and fell unconscious.

The woman who had managed to push the creature back approached Aren and placed her hand on his wound and saddened him.

Aren began to fall unconscious from the bleeding, but before passing out he could see how the woman began to say something. Although he could not hear clearly, he could see the movement of her lips.

As he collapsed, everything went dark and a voice he had heard before came out.

I am ... the fifth and last guardian of the PRIMORDIAL.

A few hours had passed, about 8 pm, in that canyon where the nefarious incident had occurred, several corpses could be seen beside the destroyed train, but these did not belong to the passengers who perished, but were dressed in military clothes.

Thick fog surrounded one end of the train; no noise or sound could be heard from the soldiers who went to pick up the corpses left on the spot.

In the distance, where Aren and the others had traveled earlier, one could feel the temperature rising intensely.

In that place could be seen as a small group of military men with their guns and flashlights lit, but none of them were firing.

In the middle of them a small bonfire could be seen, which had turned into a small clearing after being consumed by a fire.

From that charred dismount a tentacle seemed to emerge trying to escape, but immediately a blue fire consumed it before it fled.

All those present seemed relieved and looked with great admiration at the man standing between them and the small fire.

- Third Note: The entity CECE-0171 presents level 3 resistance to Astrong's flames. In addition, the creature's intelligence and adaptability level is minimally level 2, it is suggested not to get involved unless there is a Reformed Berserker or Elementalist at best.

- S-Sir... is that all? - asked one of the soldiers to that older looking but still vigorous but serious male. His formal clothes together with that long black coat and his serious face reflected a man of vast experience in his work.

The man looked sideways at the trembling soldier.

- Yes... we are withdrawing.

Even if he said this, no one would move if that man did not lead them.

The old man sighed looking at the sky while smoking a cigarette.

In that field, being a few hours away from the end of the second stage of the ARET exam, roars of the beasts outside could be heard, as well as metallic sounds and some witty gunshots. Only a few times the scream of other applicants could be heard; however, Liam and the rest did not know exactly what was going on because they were hidden in that small cave.

- Hey ... What's that all about? ... They won't let you sleep ...

- Will you shut up? Just leave them and let's hope it's soon tomorrow.

- This is boring...

- If you want to go and fight, but don't drag the rest of us down.

- Ha ha ha...

- Guys, stop talking ... it looks like they are close. - murmured Ofelia.

The minutes passed and those sounds moved away; this gave a temporary calm to that group.

- Seriously... is this a test? Come to think of it, written tests don't look so bad anymore. - commented Renato.

- Oh yeah? ... What was your average in the three tests? - asked Liam sarcastically.

- ... No comment.

- Hah ... I knew it.

- What?!

- Do they really behave like that all the time? - Ophelia asked Daniel as they listened, since everything was dark.

- Ha ha ha... I think so.

Between teasing and laughing, they all reacted to a rustling of some tree branch very close to them. Everyone immediately fell silent.

- What was that?

- ...

Having covered the entrance to the cave with rocks and bushes, no one was supposed to know there was such a place, but all the young people heard footsteps approaching their hiding place.

No one believed that they had seen them before, as they had been hidden for several hours and they made sure that no one had seen them enter before, or so they thought.

Those footsteps stopped being heard.

Daniel and Renato, who were armed with a black dagger and a metal bar, waited for what was coming, but when they noticed that nothing was happening, they lowered their guard.

- What could that have been?

- I don't know ... but I think it's gone.

- No ... actually we are all here. - answered an unknown voice that at the same time brought with it a light that illuminated the whole place leaving them blinded to that group.

The reaction of Liam and the rest was late.

This resulted in the worst possible scenario; having all left the cave and recovered their sight, they realized that they did not have their tokens with them; they had been stolen.

Soon they heard the roar of the wild beasts who stood outside as if waiting for them. Yes, they were cornered again and there was no trace of those who had stolen them.

Among the branches of the trees, hidden among the leaves, it was observed how a lantern was thrown gently into the air spinning and then being caught by a hand.

This action was repeated continuously, a young man dressed in black with a mask was the one who played with the device while watching from above what was going to happen to that group.

Behind him appeared a young woman who called out to him.

- Carlo, Leandro says we should leave.

- Really? We're going to leave you prey to those beasts?

- Don't pretend... you just want to see them killed, but remember that the instructors will intervene if things get ugly.

- Hahh ... you're really killing the moment, Alexia.

- ... Think what you want, but let's go.

- Fine..." answered the young man who held in his left hand the token of one of the group.

Having accepted the order, both young men proceeded to leave; however, a sudden attack caused them to lose their balance.

A metal rod shot like an arrow into the tree where they were standing almost pierced the head of the young man who was holding one of the tokens.

- What? - they both muttered.

- Are you sure they're up there?! Because if so, then I guess I missed!

That was the next thing the two hidden young men heard.

As they turned to look at that group that should deal with the beasts' attack, they noticed that the beasts were motionless; it was as if they were petrified.

"Do they know where we are!" was what they both thought.

- Let's waste no time and catch them! - Liam exclaimed.

"If you shout it like that, do you think we won't do anything?" thought both young men sarcastically and unanimously.

But after a few seconds they noticed something, one of the four young men was missing.

- The white-haired one... where is he?

Soon they heard the crack of a branch; it was the one where the two young men were standing.

As the branch broke, they both inevitably fell. However, both young men reacted by avoiding a hard fall. When they got up, the two boys realized that they did not have the tokens they had stolen.

As if looking for something lost, the pair began to search the floor.

- Did they drop something?

They both looked up and saw a young man with white hair and red eyes holding the chips.

- You ...

Suddenly, without being able to greet each other, Ophelia and Renato, who was carrying Liam, ran past.

- What are you waiting for? Run him! - exclaimed Renato.

Without thinking, Daniel followed them.

- Do you think we'll let you go like this!

- No, of course not! But I think you'll have to deal with something first!

- ¿?

Roars were heard behind the ambushed pair. The beasts that could now move were running towards them.